Tag: software

With my current Windows 7 install starting to get a little crusty, it’s getting close to the time I’ll be turning to this tool again.

Rufus takes an OS installation (Windows or Linux) and slaps it into a USB drive of your choice.

This is one of many tools, of course, and in the case of Windows 7/8, Microsoft provides its own tools for this. Problem is, their tool failed me the last couple times I used it, and I don’t really care why. Because Rufus worked great.

I’d like to say the standard “then you move on with your life,” but let’s face it, the next several hours will be spent updating and customizing that new OS of yours. All the same, it’s good to have in the old toolkit.

Rufus is freeware, it’s safe, and reliable. I’ll be using it myself again soon. Get it here.

There’s one extremely minor reason to upgrade to iTunes 10 (if you must use iTunes at all), and that’s the fact that Apple seems to have finally figured out how to provide an attractive, intelligent, and functional manner for displaying cover art outside of the main application. No need for a separate CD cover art app any longer.

Standing alone as an album art viewer (this is as small as it gets):

When the mouse hovers over it, iTunes controls show:

Here’s how to get it working:

Click the album art pane in iTunes (see image below).

Move and adjust the cover art window.

Minimize iTunes, because it is still ugly.

Hover over the album art to control iTunes, or use an alternative method (see links below).

Get on with life and living.

Click for larger

Of course, you can also continue to use hotkey solutions as I describe in earlier posts:

Though it came out shortly before year’s end, I’ve pretty much thought of this action roguelike as my personal Game of the Year ’09. It’s not immediately obvious, especially if you’re one to quit games the split second they get difficult (and this is one unforgiving game), but the acrobatic stunts and the unexpected interactions of simple mechanics really add up to a charming and deeply fun game.

It kind of irks me that, like Cave Story, Spelunky will be getting the special treatment (better graphics, some unspecified extras) for its console debut, but fortunately, Derek Yu is a man with his feet on the ground, and the Windows version will continue to be free. XBLA exposure isn’t exactly a bad thing, and it’ll put a few dollars in his pocket. Good for him, I say. Plus, the interest may well spawn new variations on the action roguelike.

(Personally, I don’t own and have no interest in owning an XBox, but if the improved version of this game hit the Nintendo DS I’d be all over it.)

Seriously, if you haven’t tried out this little gem, do so, immediately.

It looks like a file defragmenter, but really it’s a way to see how very fragmented your day is. ManicTime is a fat, but free .NET app that snoops on all your window titles and creates a series of charts that describe the applications that take up your day. It’s a good way to augment your timecard, or just see how long you’ve spent playing Team Fortress 2 versus World of Warcraft. I’ve been using it for about eight hours now and I already feel terribly, terribly guilty.

ManicTime main screen

Pluses:

Free and professional-looking

Silently records your doings with no interaction

Unobtrusive – unlike a PDA-type app, it won’t remind you what to do, it passively records what you’re doing

Accurate enough out of the box, better with a little personal configuration

Can export graphs (to PNG) and data (to CSV)

Does not share or upload your data with a 3rd party source, all info is store locally

Negatives:

Induces guilt

Requires .NET (and therefore not native to Mac or Linux machines)

Grossly overweight (its two runtimes exceed 50MB when minimized)

Without user interaction, cannot differentiate between different activities using the same app (bad if you use your browser for multiple tasks: watching YouTube, checking email, writing a blog post)

sfxr is a tiny little tool built for the purpose of quickly generating unique, but recognizably stock sounds for games, specifically games competitions, where dev time can be measured in hours.Derek Yu used it to create sound effects for the rogueish treasure platformer Spelunky. Generated sound effects for a procedurally generated game. For me, of course, it’s just a fun little thing to play around with and make stupid noises.

An impatient search of Google for Snarl style customization, or some reference for Melon styles was fruitless (har har). Perhaps that old crank Dvorak was right about Google. At any rate, here is the problem:

Snarl is at best beta software at this point (current version 2.06). It’s chunky, clunky, and the styles are ugly. As a universal screen-spammer, however, it does have some promise. There’s little for a non-programmer such as myself to do at this point than play with it until it becomes too annoying or eventually matures. The existing styles have the same aggressive, hard glass of a Windows Vista theme, or are simply dull:

That top one there is my own modification. Yes, it’s ugly as well, but it’s a start. Note for one how the text size is larger, the overstated glassy effect is removed, and the color matches my desktop. Again, I’m just getting started.